One of my former clients fired their marketing team. They said it was because there was a massive slowdown in their business. This is a local professional services firm. So I’m not sure whether it’s because of the current security situation or some other reason.
In any case, firing your marketing team when business slows down is the opposite of what you should do.
- You’re eliminating the activity that brings in sales
- Your competitors are as short-sighted as you are. And they’re making the same bad decisions. So if you do the opposite you’ll take their marketshare. And when business picks back up, you will dominate.
Now is the time to double or triple your marketing effort and investment. But if there’s no money coming in, where do you find the budget? Simple, you fire all non-revenue-producing staff.
- Everyone in HR
- Everyone in Accounting and Finance
- Secretaries and receptionists
- “Office boys” – these are like interns who deliver mail, bring everyone coffee, make photocopies and run errands, except they’re paid full-time employees; they’re almost always men, too, which seems kind of sexist but idk – and also drivers and cleaners
There, I’ve opened up six figures a month in payroll that can be diverted to running more ads and publishing more content. The only reason why these people tend to keep their jobs is because of the Bullshit Jobs theory, articulated by David Graeber in his book of the same name.
Graeber says more than half of societal work is pointless. He names five types of entirely pointless jobs:
- Flunkies, who serve to make their superiors feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants, store greeters;
- Goons, who act to harm or deceive others on behalf of their employer, or to prevent other goons from doing so, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists;
- Duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code, airline desk staff who calm passengers with lost luggage;
- Box tickers, who create the appearance that something useful is being done when it is not, e.g., survey administrators, in-house magazine journalists, corporate compliance officers, academic administration;[14]
- Taskmasters, who create extra work for those who do not need it, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals.
Every position I’ve told you to fire falls into one of these five categories. If you have any more employees who fit the criteria, fire them too. But my advice will fall on deaf ears. Because people care more about looking successful than being successful.
Mr. Pattison is absolutely right, of course. You can’t spend money you don’t have. And I would never suggest you do. Sometimes the only thing you can do is cut expenses down to the bone. Live to sell another day.
Which is why I said terminate your HR department first.
There are six, maybe seven figures of non-revenue-generating payroll in every company. Money can be found if you look hard enough. Not that hard actually. Everyone hates HR.
I would also add there’s a psychological effect in continuing to promote your business when all your competitors are playing scared. Besides the fact you’re the only one advertising and this triggers availability and recency bias in the minds of your prospects… You look like you’re doing well. And people want to work with winners.
One last thing.
If business is slow no one is saying you need to spend the same on marketing. Reduce spend if you have to. Just don’t stop entirely.
No budget for ads? Triple your organic publishing. Social media is free. Emails are free (ish).
There are so many ways to promote a business that don’t cost money. Get creative. That’s what a marketing team is good at. But they can’t be creative if you’ve fired them all.